Over thousands of years of navigation, people have learned to deal with dangers water element. Pilot directions indicate a safe route, weather forecasters warn about storms, satellites monitor icebergs and other dangerous objects. However, it is still unclear how to protect yourself from a thirty-meter wave that suddenly appears for no apparent reason. Just fifteen years ago, mysterious rogue waves were considered fiction.

Sometimes the appearance of giant waves on the surface of the ocean is quite understandable and expected, but sometimes they are a real mystery. Often such a wave is a death sentence for any vessel. The name of these mysteries is rogue waves.

You will hardly find a sailor who has not been baptized by a storm. Because, to paraphrase a well-known saying, to be afraid of storms means not to go out to sea. Since the dawn of navigation, a storm has been the best test of both courage and professionalism. And if the favorite theme of war veterans’ memories is past battles, then the “sea wolves” will certainly tell you about the whistling wind that blew away radio antennas and radars, and the huge roaring waves that almost swallowed their ship. Which, perhaps, was “the very best.”

But already 200 years ago there was a need to clarify the strength of the storm. Therefore, in 1806, the Irish hydrographer and admiral of the British fleet Francis Beaufort (1774-1875) introduced a special scale according to which the weather at sea was classified depending on the degree of influence of the wind on the water surface. It was divided into thirteen levels: from zero (complete calm) to 12 points (hurricane). In the twentieth century, with some changes (in 1946 it was 17-point), it was adopted by the International Meteorological Committee - including for the classification of winds on land. Since then, hats have been involuntarily taken off to a sailor who has gone through a 12-point “swell” - because they have at least heard what it is: huge heaving shafts, the tops of which are blown into continuous clouds of spray and foam by a hurricane wind.

However, for the terrible phenomenon that regularly hits the southeastern tip of the North American continent, a new scale had to be invented in 1920. This is the five-point Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, which evaluates not so much the power of the element itself, but the destruction it causes.

According to this scale, a hurricane of the first category (wind speed 119-153 km/h) breaks tree branches and causes some damage to small ships at the pier. A category three hurricane (179-209 km/h) knocks down trees, tears off roofs and destroys light prefabricated houses, and floods the coastline. The most terrible hurricane of the fifth category (more than 255 km/h) destroys most buildings and causes serious flooding - driving large masses of water onto land. This is exactly what happened to the infamous Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005.

The Caribbean Sea, where up to ten hurricanes forming in the Atlantic sweep through each year between June 1 and November 30, has long been considered one of the most dangerous areas for navigation. And living on the islands of this basin is by no means safe - especially in such a poor country as Haiti - where there is neither a normal warning service nor the ability to evacuate from a dangerous coast. In 2004, Hurricane Jenny killed 1,316 people there. The wind, roaring like a squadron of jet planes, blew away dilapidated huts along with their occupants and brought palm trees down on people's heads. And foaming waves rolled towards them from the sea.

One can only imagine what the crew of a ship that finds itself in the “hell of” such a hurricane experiences. However, it happens that ships do not die during a storm at all.

In April 2005, the cruise ship Norwegian Dawn, leaving the fabulous Bahamas, was heading to New York Harbor. The sea was slightly stormy, but the huge 300-meter ship could simply afford to ignore such disturbances. Two and a half thousand passengers had fun in restaurants, walked along the decks and took photographs for memory.

Suddenly the liner tilted sharply, and in the next seconds a gigantic wave crashed onto its side, knocking out the cabin windows. It swept through the ship, sweeping away sun loungers in its path, overturning boats and the Jacuzzi installed on the 12th deck, knocking passengers and sailors off their feet.

“It was pure hell,” said James Fraley, one of the passengers who was celebrating his honeymoon on the liner with his wife. — Streams of water rolled over the decks. We started calling family and friends to say goodbye, deciding that the ship was sinking.”

So the Norwegian Dawn encountered one of the most mysterious and terrible ocean anomalies - a giant rogue wave. In the West they received various names: freak, rogue, rabid-dog, giant waves, cape rollers, steep wave events, etc.

The ship was very lucky - it escaped with only minor damage to the hull, property washed overboard and injured passengers. But the wave that suddenly hit him didn’t get its ominous nickname for nothing. The liner could well have suffered the fate of the Hollywood Poseidon, which turned upside down in the film of the same name. Or, even worse, simply break in half and drown, becoming the second Titanic.

Back in 1840, during his expedition, the French navigator Dumont d'Urville (Jules Sebastien Cesar Dumont d'Urville, 1792-1842) observed a giant wave about 35 m high. But his message at a meeting of the French Geographical Society caused only ironic laughter. None of the scientists could believe that such waves could exist.

They began to study this phenomenon seriously only after the English cargo ship Derbyshire sank off the coast of Japan in 1980. As the examination showed, the ship, almost 300 meters long, was destroyed by a gigantic wave, which pierced the main cargo hatch and flooded the hold. 44 people died. In the same year, the oil tanker Esso Languedoc collided with a rogue wave east of the coast of South Africa.

“It was stormy, but not very strong,” the English magazine New Scientist quoted senior mate Philippe Lijour as saying. “Suddenly a huge wave appeared from the stern, many times higher than all the others. It covered the entire ship, even the masts disappeared under the water.”

While the water was rolling along the deck, Philip managed to grab a photo of it. According to his estimates, the shaft shot up at least 30 meters. The tanker was lucky - it remained afloat. However, these two cases were the last straw, causing companies involved in the export and import of raw materials to panic. After all, it was believed that transporting it on giant ships was not only more economically profitable, but also safer - they say that such ships, which are “knee-deep in the sea,” are not afraid of any storm.

Alas! Only in the period from 1969 to 1994 in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans Twenty-two supertankers sank or were seriously damaged when encountering such waves, killing five hundred and twenty-five people. Twelve more similar tragedies occurred during this time in the Indian Ocean. Offshore oil platforms also suffer from them. Thus, on February 15, 1982, a rogue wave overturned a Mobil Oil drilling rig in the Newfoundland Bank area, killing eighty-four workers.

But an even greater number of small vessels (trawlers, pleasure yachts) when encountering rogue waves simply disappear without a trace, without even having time to send a distress signal. Giant water shafts as high as a fifteen-story building crushed or smashed small boats. The skill of the helmsmen did not help either: if someone managed to turn his nose towards the wave, then his fate was the same as that of the unfortunate fishermen in the film “The Perfect Storm”: the boat, trying to climb onto the crest, became vertical - and fell off down, falling into the abyss with the keel up.

Rogue waves usually occur during a storm. This is the same “ninth wave” that sailors are so afraid of - but, fortunately, not everyone happens to encounter it. If the height of ordinary storm crests is on average 4-6 meters (10-15 for a hurricane), then a wave that suddenly appears among them can reach a height of 25-30 meters.

However, rarer, and much more dangerous rogue waves appear in fairly calm weather - and this is not called anything other than an anomaly. At first they tried to justify them by the collision of sea currents: most often such waves appear at the Cape of Good Hope (the southern tip of Africa), where warm and cold currents connect. It is there that sometimes the so-called “three sisters” - three giant waves following one after another, upon rising which supertankers break under their own weight.

But reports of deadly waves also came from other parts of the planet. They were also seen in the Black Sea - “only” ten meters high, but this was enough to capsize several small trawlers. In 2006, such a wave hit the British ferry Pont-Aven, which was traveling along the Pas-de-Calais Strait. She broke windows at the height of the sixth deck, injuring several passengers.

What causes the surface of the sea to suddenly rise up like a gigantic wave? Both serious scientists and amateur theorists develop a variety of hypotheses. The waves are recorded by satellites from space, their models are created in research basins, but they still cannot explain the reasons for all cases of rogue waves.

But the causes that cause the most terrible and destructive sea waves - tsunamis - have long been established and studied.

Seaside resorts don't always exist a piece of paradise planets. Sometimes they become a real hell - when unexpectedly, in clear and sunny weather, gigantic shafts of water fall on them, washing away entire cities along the way.

...These images went around the whole world: unsuspecting tourists who, out of curiosity, went to the bottom of the suddenly receding sea - to pick up a few shells and starfish. And suddenly they notice a rapidly approaching wave appearing on the horizon. The poor people are trying to escape, but a muddy, seething stream overtakes and captures them, and then rushes towards the whitewashed houses on the coast...

The disaster that erupted on December 26, 2004 in Southeast Asia shocked humanity. A giant wave swept away everything in its path, spreading across the Indian Ocean. Sumatra and Java, Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh, Thailand were affected, and the wave even reached the east coast of Africa. The Andaman Islands went under water for several hours - and the local aborigines miraculously survived, saving themselves on the treetops. As a result of the disaster, more than 230 thousand people died; it took more than a month to find and bury them all. Millions of people were left homeless and without a means of livelihood. The tragedy turned out to be one of the largest and most tragic natural disasters in human history.

“A high wave entering the harbor” is how the word “tsunami” is translated from Japanese. In 99% of cases, tsunamis are caused by an earthquake of the ocean floor when it suddenly drops or rises. Just a few meters, but over a huge area - and this is enough to cause a wave spreading out from the epicenter in a circle. In the open sea, its speed reaches 800 km/h, but it is almost impossible to notice it, since its height is only about one, maximum two meters - but with a length of up to several kilometers. The ship under which it passes will only rock slightly - that is why, having received a warning, ships strive to leave the ports and go as far out to sea as possible.

The situation changes when the wave approaches the shore, in shallow water (enters the harbor). Its speed and length drop sharply, but its height increases - up to seven, ten or more meters (cases of 40-meter tsunamis are known). It bursts onto the land like a solid wall and has enormous energy - that’s why tsunamis are so destructive and can travel several hundred and sometimes thousands of meters along the ground. Moreover, each tsunami hits twice. At first, when it hits the shore, flooding it. And then - when the water begins to return to the sea, carrying away those who survived the first blow.

In 1755, caused devastating earthquake The tsunami killed 40 thousand Portuguese. A formidable ocean wave hit Japan on June 15, 1896: the height of the wave reached 35 meters, then 27 thousand people died, and all coastal towns and villages in an 800 km strip ceased to exist. In 1992, a tsunami killed 2,000 Indonesian islanders.

Experienced residents of coastal cities and towns in seismically dangerous areas know: as soon as an earthquake begins, and after it a sudden and rapid ebb of tide, you need to drop everything and run without looking back to higher ground or inland. In a number of regions regularly affected by tsunamis (Japan, Sakhalin, Hawaii), special warning services have been created. They record an earthquake in the ocean and immediately give an alarm to all the media and through street loudspeakers.

But tsunamis can be caused not only by earthquakes. The explosion of the Krakatoa volcano in 1883 caused a wave that struck the islands of Java and Sumatra, washing away more than 5,000 fishing boats, about 300 villages and killing more than 36,000 people. And in Lituya Bay (Alaska), a tsunami caused a landslide that collapsed a mountainside into the sea. The wave spread over a limited area, but its height was enormous - over three hundred meters, while hitting the opposite shore, it licked the bushes at an altitude of 580 meters!

However, this is not the limit. The largest and most destructive waves are generated when large meteorites or asteroids fall into the ocean. True, fortunately, this happens extremely rarely - once every few million years. But this cataclysm is taking on the scale of a truly planetary flood. For example, German scientists have established that about 200 million years ago a large cosmic body crashed into the Earth. It raised a tsunami over one kilometer high, which burst onto the continental plains, destroying all life in its path.

Rogue waves should not be confused with tsunamis: tsunamis arise as a result of seismic phenomena and gain great height only close to the coast, while rogue waves can appear for no known reason, in almost any part of the sea, with low winds and relatively low waves. Tsunamis are dangerous for coastal structures and ships close to the shore, while a rogue wave can destroy any ship or offshore structure that comes its way.

Where do these monsters come from? Until recently, oceanographers believed that they were formed as a result of well-known linear processes. According to the prevailing theory, large waves are simply the product of interference, in which small waves combine into one large one.

In some cases, this is exactly what happens. A good example of this is the waters off Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of the African continent. The Atlantic and Indian oceans meet there. Ships rounding the cape are regularly attacked huge waves, which are formed as a result of the collision of the fast Agulyas Current and winds blowing from the south. The movement of the water slows down, and the waves begin to pile on top of each other, forming giant waves. In addition, super waves can often be found in the Gulf Stream, the Kuroshio Current south of the coast of Japan and in the notorious waters off Cape Horn, where the same thing happens - fast currents collide with opposing winds.

However, the interference mechanism does not apply to all giant waves. Firstly, it is in no way suitable for justifying the appearance of giant waves in places like the North Sea. There are no traces of fast currents there.

Secondly, even if interference occurs, giant waves should not occur so often. Their absolute majority should gravitate towards an average height - some are slightly higher, others are slightly lower. Double-sized giants should appear no more than once during human life. However, in reality everything is completely different. Observations by oceanographers suggest that most waves are smaller than average, and true giants are much more common than we think. Orthodox oceanography gets a hole below the waterline.

A rogue wave is usually described as a rapidly approaching wall of water of enormous height. A depression several meters deep moves in front of it - a “hole in the sea.” Wave height is usually specified as the distance from the highest point of the crest to the lowest point of the trough. By appearance"Rogue waves" are divided into three main types: "white wall", "three sisters" (a group of three waves), a single wave ("single tower").

To appreciate what they can do, just look at the photo of the Willstar above. The surface on which such a wave hits can experience pressure of up to one hundred tons per square meter (about 980 kilopascals). A typical twelve-meter wave threatens only six tons per square meter. Most modern vessels can support up to 15 tons per square meter.

According to the observations of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), rogue waves can be dissipated and non-dispersed. Those who do not disperse can travel quite a long distance by sea: from six to ten miles. If the ship notices a wave from afar, you can take some action. Those that dissipate appear literally out of nowhere (apparently, such a wave attacked the “Taganrog Bay”), collapse and disappear.

According to some experts, rogue waves are dangerous even for helicopters flying low over the sea: first of all, rescue ones. Despite the seeming improbability of such an event, the authors of the hypothesis believe that it cannot be ruled out and that at least two cases of death of rescue helicopters are similar to the result of a giant wave.

Scientists are trying to figure out how energy in the ocean is redistributed in such a way that the formation of rogue waves becomes possible. The behavior of nonlinear systems like the sea surface is extremely difficult to describe. Some theories use the nonlinear Schrödinger equation to describe the generation of waves. Some are trying to apply existing descriptions solitons - single waves of unusual nature. In the latest research on this topic, scientists were able to reproduce a very similar phenomenon in electromagnetic waves, but this has not yet led to practical results.

Some empirical data on the conditions under which rogue waves are more likely to occur are still known. So, if the wind drives waves against a strong current, this can lead to the appearance of high, steep waves. For example, the Cape Agulhas current (in which the Wilstar suffered) is notorious for this. Other high-risk areas include the Kuroshio Current, Gulf Stream, North Sea and surrounding areas.

Experts call the following prerequisites for the occurrence of a rogue wave:

1. area low blood pressure;
2. wind blowing in one direction for more than 12 hours in a row;
3. waves moving at the same speed as the area of ​​​​low pressure;
4. waves moving against a strong current;
5. fast waves catching up with slower waves and merging with them.

The absurd nature of rogue waves, however, is manifested in the fact that they can also arise when the listed conditions are not met. This unpredictability is the main mystery for scientists and danger for sailors.

They managed to escape

1943, North Atlantic. The cruise ship Queen Elizabeth falls into a deep trough and is subjected to two powerful wave shocks in a row, which cause serious damage to the bridge - twenty meters above the waterline.

1944 Indian Ocean. The British Navy cruiser Birmingham falls into deep hole, after which a giant wave hits its bow. According to the notes of the ship's commander, the deck, located at an altitude of eighteen meters from sea level, is flooded with knee-deep water.

1966, North Atlantic. On the way to New York, the Italian steamship Michelangelo is hit by a wave eighteen meters high. Water rushes onto the bridge and into the first class cabins, killing two passengers and one crew member.

1995, North Sea. The floating drilling rig Veslefrikk B, owned by Statoil, was seriously damaged by a giant wave. According to one of the crew members, a few minutes before the impact he saw a “wall of water.”

1995 North Atlantic. While sailing to New York, the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth 2 encounters a hurricane and is hit by a wave twenty-nine meters high on its bow. “It felt like we were crashing into the White Cliffs of Dover,” says Captain Ronald Warrick.

1998, North Atlantic. BP Amoco's floating production platform "Schihallion" is hit by a giant wave, which destroys its tank superstructure at a height of eighteen meters from the water level.

2000, North Atlantic. After receiving a distress call from a yacht 600 miles from the Irish port of Cork, the British cruise liner Oriana is hit by a twenty-one meter high wave.

Stray waves, rogue waves, monster waves, century waves... all these adjectives are used to describe the giant waves that occur in the ocean. They are so tall that they can capsize an ocean liner.

The height of a rogue wave is at least twice the height of a normal large wave. It was previously thought that rogue waves were a myth, but recent research has proven their existence. According to calculations, the probability of such waves appearing in the ocean is 1 in 200,000.

The first official rogue wave was recorded on a Norwegian gas production platform (Dropner platform) in 1995. The wave was called the “Dropner wave.” Although it did not cause much damage to the platform, its height was 26 meters - twice as high as any other large wave in the region.

Stray waves, unlike tsunamis, usually occur very far from the coast. For ocean storms, waves 7 meters high are common. If the storm is exceptionally strong, wave heights can reach 15 meters. But stray waves are not born during a storm and can reach a height of 30 meters or more (the height of a 10-story building). Such a wave looks like a huge, almost vertical wall of water. If a ship gets in the way of a stray wave, there is almost no hope of salvation; it sinks in a matter of minutes.

Three sisters

Stray waves can also appear on lakes. So, in the American Lake Superior there is a phenomenon called “Three Sisters”. Sometimes three huge waves appear on the surface of the lake, following each other. In 1975, the 222-meter-long warship Edmund Fitzgerald sank precisely because of a collision with the “sisters.”

As recent research shows, roaming waves are not that rare. Scientists examined satellite data and found that many such waves appear in the ocean every year. The phenomenon of rogue waves was even studied by employees of the American military laboratories DARPA, but the cause of their occurrence could not be found out.

The history of rogue waves

19TH CENTURY

• In 1861, a giant 40-meter wave destroyed the main lamp in the lighthouse tower on Eagle Island (Ireland) and flooded the rooms on the upper floors of the lighthouse with water.
• A similar story happened in 1900, when lighthouse workers on the Flannan Islands (Scotland) were literally washed out from the top floor.

20TH CENTURY

• On September 18, 1901, the newest German ocean liner, the Kronprinz Wilhelm, collided with a rogue wave. The airliner was not damaged.
• In 1942, a 28-meter rogue wave stranded the American ocean liner Queen Mary.
• In 1951, a rogue wave tore the cargo ship SS Flying Enterprize to pieces.
• In 1966, the Italian ocean liner Michelangelo suffered a hole as a souvenir from a collision with a giant wave. The wave broke the portholes, located at a height of 24 meters above the waterline.
• In 1985, a wave 48 meters high hit the Irish Fastnet Rock lighthouse.
• In 1995, the ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 was hit by a 29-meter wave. The ship's captain said that she "came out of the darkness" and "looked like a giant cliff." The only thing that saved the ship from destruction was that it rolled off an almost vertical wave, as surfers do.

21 CENTURY

• In 2001, the cruise ship Bremen and the research vessel Star of Caledonia encountered 30-meter waves. The portholes on both ships were blown out.
• In 2004, sensors at the US Naval Research Laboratory detected stray waves 28 meters high and 200 meters wide in the Gulf of Mexico.
• In 2005, the cruise ship Norwegian Dawn encountered three 21-meter waves (the ocean version of the “three sisters”). The third wave knocked out several portholes on decks 9 and 10 and flooded several decks with water.
• In 2006, scientists from the American Military Institute U.S. The Naval Institute has hypothesized that rogue waves are the real reason for the disappearance of low-flying aircraft and helicopters that participated in naval military operations.

The title sounds like we'll talk about another anti-scientific study that yellow newspapers love to use. Man from Mars, pyramids built by aliens, rogue waves - it would seem a completely logical series. In fact, this is a truly scientific term that refers to incredibly huge waves wandering across the ocean that can swallow almost any ship. Unlike a completely predictable tsunami or storm, a wandering wave appears completely suddenly, growing along the way like a giant shaft, ready to absorb all living things in its path. As you know, fear has big eyes. Therefore, for a long time the existence of rogue waves was considered a sea legend and even a myth. But that was exactly until someone from the crew of the ship, in whose path another wave stood, filmed this monster on video. Interestingly, the amplitude of wave formation is almost independent of the size of the reservoir and the weather. We have put together everything that we currently know about the phenomenon that all sailors who go out into the open ocean fear.

A giant single wave, appearing completely unpredictably in the vastness of the ocean, has long been considered an idle invention of the lungs based on the frightening stories of sailors. It was only in the last century that scientists actually received documented evidence of the existence of this phenomenon. A rogue wave can reach up to 30 meters - this, for a moment, is the height of a fourteen-story building. The strangest thing is that they appear almost suddenly - researchers have still not been able to create any, even approximate, algorithm for their appearance. Consequently, almost every ship that goes out to the open sea is in danger of being “attacked” by such a giant monster.

No one has ever fully figured out exact reasons the occurrence of this dangerous phenomenon. Or rather, there are so many factors that may well contribute to the formation of a rogue wave that it is simply impossible to bring them to a common denominator. For example, ordinary waves can move towards a current that slows them down at one point, unite and turn into one giant wave. Shallow water also contributes to this, where waves interact with each other, the bottom and the current at the same time. Therefore, it becomes impossible to predict the appearance of a rogue wave in a timely manner, which means that protecting against them in advance also does not seem realistic.

For a very long time, giant rogue waves were considered an idle fiction. And this is completely understandable - just read the title again! In addition, the existing mathematical model of the appearance of sea waves simply did not allow the existence of a suddenly appearing wall of water more than twenty meters high. But on January 1, 1995, mathematicians had to develop the analytical system anew: the wave that appeared at the Dropner oil platform exceeded 25 meters. The myth turned out to be true, and for a long time the sailors did not know whether to rejoice at the confirmed story or begin to fear the very real rogue waves.

The emergence of the Dropner wave initiated the development of a new research project aimed at studying the phenomenon. MaxWave Project scientists have begun using radar satellites to monitor the entire surface of the world's oceans. In less than a month, researchers discovered a dozen waves exceeding 25 meters.

Another big headline, and again - completely justified. The so-called “Rogue Wave Catalog” was compiled by the famous oceanologist Irina Didenkulova. She decided to collect absolutely all available information not only from official sources, but also from navigation sites, media data and even YouTube videos. The result was a very smooth and competent statistical picture of the occurrence of these terrible waves. Not all scientists are ready to consider the “death catalog” as serious Scientific research, however, the data presented here really allows us to bring the phenomenon to a common denominator.

Oceanologists were sure that giant rogue waves could only arise in the World Ocean. Until the data about the sinking of the warship Edmund Fitzgerald, which occurred on Lake Superior, USA, was confirmed. As it turned out, on this lake, local residents have been observing an amazing phenomenon for many years: several times a year, the surface of the water gives birth to three huge waves, each about 25 meters high, in succession. They were called "Three Sisters".

The untimely recording of the terrible and extremely unusual phenomenon of rogue waves led to the fact that the disappearance and death of many ships remained unsolved. But now that the fundamental existence of such a phenomenon has been scientifically proven, researchers can compile a list of the most terrible disasters that occurred through their fault. IN last decade There were several dangerous collisions with rogue waves: the Norwegian Dawn liner encountered three 24-meter waves at once, but remained afloat. In 2001, two ships (the liner Bremen and the scientific vessel Star of Caledonia) were less fortunate: several crew members disappeared from both ships.

What causes the appearance of most waves in the oceans and seas, about the destructive energy of waves and about the most gigantic waves and the largest tsunamis that man has ever seen.

The highest wave

Most often, waves are generated by the wind: air moves the surface layers of the water column at a certain speed. Some waves can accelerate up to 95 km/h, and the wave can be up to 300 meters long; such waves travel enormous distances across the ocean, but most often their kinetic energy is extinguished and consumed before they reach land. If the wind subsides, then the waves become smaller and smoother.

The formation of waves in the ocean follows certain patterns.

The height and length of the wave depend on the wind speed, the duration of its influence, and the area covered by the wind. There is a correspondence: the greatest height of a wave is one-seventh of its length. For example, a strong breeze generates waves up to 3 meters high, an extensive hurricane - on average up to 20 meters. And these are truly monstrous waves, with roaring foam caps and other special effects.

The highest normal wave of 34 meters was recorded in the Agulhas Current ( South Africa) in 1933 by sailors on board the American ship Ramapo. Waves of this height are called “rogue waves”: even a large ship can easily get lost in the gaps between them and die.

In theory, the height of normal waves can reach 60 meters, but such waves have not yet been recorded in practice.

In addition to the usual wind origin, there are other mechanisms of wave formation. The cause and epicenter of the birth of a wave can be an earthquake, a volcanic eruption, a sharp change in the coastline (landslides), human activity (for example, testing nuclear weapons) and even the fall of large celestial bodies - meteorites - into the ocean.

The biggest wave

This is a tsunami - a serial wave that is caused by some powerful impulse. The peculiarity of tsunami waves is that they are quite long; the distance between the crests can reach tens of kilometers. Therefore, in the open ocean, a tsunami does not pose a particular danger, since the height of the waves is on average no more than a few centimeters, in record cases - a meter and a half, but the speed of their propagation is simply unimaginable, up to 800 km / hour. From a ship on the open sea they are not noticeable at all. A tsunami acquires destructive power as it approaches the coast: reflection from the coast leads to a compression of the wavelength, but the energy does not disappear anywhere. Accordingly, its (wave) amplitude, that is, height, increases. It is easy to conclude that such waves can reach much higher heights than wind waves.

The worst tsunamis are caused by significant disturbances in the topography of the seabed, such as tectonic faults or shifts, due to which billions of tons of water begin to abruptly move tens of thousands of kilometers at the speed of a jet aircraft. Disasters occur when this entire mass slows down on the shore, and its colossal energy first goes to increase in height, and ultimately collapses onto the land with all its power, a wall of water.

The most tsunami-hazardous places are bays with high banks. These are real tsunami traps. And the worst thing is that a tsunami almost always comes suddenly: in appearance, the situation at sea can be indistinguishable from low tide or high tide, an ordinary storm, people do not have time or do not even think about evacuating, and suddenly they are overtaken by a giant wave. Not many places have developed a warning system.

Territories with increased seismic activity are areas of particular risk in our time. No wonder the name of this natural phenomenon is of Japanese origin.

The worst tsunami in Japan

The islands are regularly attacked by waves of different calibers, and among them there are truly gigantic ones that entail human casualties. An earthquake off the east coast of Honshu in 2011 caused a tsunami with wave heights of up to 40 meters. The earthquake is estimated to be the strongest in the recorded history of Japan. The waves struck along the entire coast, together with the earthquake they claimed the lives of more than 15 thousand people, many thousands went missing.

Another of the highest waves in Japanese history hit the western island of Hokkaido in 1741 as a result of a volcanic eruption; its height is approximately 90 meters.

The biggest tsunami in the world

In 2004, on the islands of Sumatra and Java, a tsunami caused strong earthquake in the Indian Ocean, turned into a major disaster. According to various sources, from 200 to 300 thousand people died - a third of a million victims! To date, this particular tsunami is considered the most destructive in history.

And the record holder for wave height is named “Lituya”. This tsunami, which swept through Lituya Bay in Alaska at a speed of 160 km/h in 1958, was triggered by a giant landslide. The wave height was estimated at 524 meters.

Meanwhile, the sea is not always dangerous. There are “friendly” seas. For example, not a single river flows into the Red Sea, but it is the cleanest in the world. .
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Over thousands of years of navigation, people have learned to deal with the dangers of the water elements. Pilot directions indicate a safe route, weather forecasters warn about storms, satellites monitor icebergs and other dangerous objects. However, it is still unclear how to protect yourself from a thirty-meter wave that suddenly appears for no apparent reason. Just fifteen years ago, mysterious rogue waves were considered fiction.

Sometimes the appearance of giant waves on the surface of the ocean is quite understandable and expected, but sometimes they are a real mystery. Often such a wave is a death sentence for any vessel. The name of these mysteries is rogue waves.

You will hardly find a sailor who has not been baptized by a storm. Because, to paraphrase a well-known saying, to be afraid of storms means not to go out to sea. Since the dawn of navigation, a storm has been the best test of both courage and professionalism. And if the favorite theme of war veterans’ memories is past battles, then the “sea wolves” will certainly tell you about the whistling wind that blew away radio antennas and radars, and the huge roaring waves that almost swallowed their ship. Which, perhaps, was “the very best.”

But already 200 years ago there was a need to clarify the strength of the storm. Therefore, in 1806, the Irish hydrographer and admiral of the British fleet Francis Beaufort (1774-1875) introduced a special scale according to which the weather at sea was classified depending on the degree of influence of the wind on the water surface. It was divided into thirteen levels: from zero (complete calm) to 12 points (hurricane). In the twentieth century, with some changes (in 1946 it was 17-point), it was adopted by the International Meteorological Committee - including for the classification of winds on land. Since then, hats have been involuntarily taken off to a sailor who has gone through a 12-point “swell” - because they have at least heard what it is: huge heaving shafts, the tops of which are blown into continuous clouds of spray and foam by a hurricane wind.

However, for the terrible phenomenon that regularly hits the southeastern tip of the North American continent, a new scale had to be invented in 1920. This is the five-point Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, which evaluates not so much the power of the element itself, but the destruction it causes.

According to this scale, a hurricane of the first category (wind speed 119-153 km/h) breaks tree branches and causes some damage to small ships at the pier. A category three hurricane (179-209 km/h) knocks down trees, tears off roofs and destroys light prefabricated houses, and floods the coastline. The worst hurricane of the fifth category (more than 255 km/h) destroys most buildings and causes serious flooding - driving large masses of water onto land. This is exactly what happened to the infamous Hurricane Katrina, which hit New Orleans in 2005.

The Caribbean Sea, where up to ten hurricanes forming in the Atlantic sweep through each year between June 1 and November 30, has long been considered one of the most dangerous areas for navigation. And living on the islands of this basin is by no means safe - especially in such a poor country as Haiti - where there is neither a normal warning service nor the ability to evacuate from a dangerous coast. In 2004, Hurricane Jenny killed 1,316 people there. The wind, roaring like a squadron of jet planes, blew away dilapidated huts along with their occupants and brought palm trees down on people's heads. And foaming waves rolled towards them from the sea.

One can only imagine what the crew of a ship that finds itself in the “hell of” such a hurricane experiences. However, it happens that ships do not die during a storm at all.

In April 2005, the cruise ship Norwegian Dawn, leaving the fabulous Bahamas, was heading to New York Harbor. The sea was slightly stormy, but the huge 300-meter ship could simply afford to ignore such disturbances. Two and a half thousand passengers had fun in restaurants, walked along the decks and took photographs for memory.

Suddenly the liner tilted sharply, and in the next seconds a gigantic wave crashed onto its side, knocking out the cabin windows. It swept through the ship, sweeping away sun loungers in its path, overturning boats and the Jacuzzi installed on the 12th deck, knocking passengers and sailors off their feet.

“It was pure hell,” said James Fraley, one of the passengers who was celebrating his honeymoon on the liner with his wife. — Streams of water rolled over the decks. We started calling family and friends to say goodbye, deciding that the ship was sinking.”

So the Norwegian Dawn encountered one of the most mysterious and terrible ocean anomalies - a giant rogue wave. In the West they received various names: freak, rogue, rabid-dog, giant waves, cape rollers, steep wave events, etc.

The ship was very lucky - it escaped with only minor damage to the hull, property washed overboard and injured passengers. But the wave that suddenly hit him didn’t get its ominous nickname for nothing. The liner could well have suffered the fate of the Hollywood Poseidon, which turned upside down in the film of the same name. Or, even worse, simply break in half and drown, becoming the second Titanic.

Back in 1840, during his expedition, the French navigator Dumont d'Urville (Jules Sebastien Cesar Dumont d'Urville, 1792-1842) observed a giant wave about 35 m high. But his message at a meeting of the French Geographical Society caused only ironic laughter. None of the scientists could believe that such waves could exist.

They began to study this phenomenon seriously only after the English cargo ship Derbyshire sank off the coast of Japan in 1980. As the examination showed, the ship, almost 300 meters long, was destroyed by a gigantic wave, which pierced the main cargo hatch and flooded the hold. 44 people died. In the same year, the oil tanker Esso Languedoc collided with a rogue wave east of the coast of South Africa.

“It was stormy, but not very strong,” the English magazine New Scientist quoted senior mate Philippe Lijour as saying. “Suddenly a huge wave appeared from the stern, many times higher than all the others. It covered the entire ship, even the masts disappeared under the water.”

While the water was rolling along the deck, Philip managed to grab a photo of it. According to his estimates, the shaft shot up at least 30 meters. The tanker was lucky - it remained afloat. However, these two cases were the last straw, causing companies involved in the export and import of raw materials to panic. After all, it was believed that transporting it on giant ships was not only more economically profitable, but also safer - they say that such ships, which are “knee-deep in the sea,” are not afraid of any storm.

Alas! Between 1969 and 1994 alone, twenty-two supertankers sank or were seriously damaged in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans when encountering such waves, killing five hundred and twenty-five people. Twelve more similar tragedies occurred during this time in the Indian Ocean. Offshore oil platforms also suffer from them. Thus, on February 15, 1982, a rogue wave overturned a Mobil Oil drilling rig in the Newfoundland Bank area, killing eighty-four workers.

But an even greater number of small vessels (trawlers, pleasure yachts) when encountering rogue waves simply disappear without a trace, without even having time to send a distress signal. Giant water shafts as high as a fifteen-story building crushed or smashed small boats. The skill of the helmsmen did not help either: if someone managed to turn his nose towards the wave, then his fate was the same as that of the unfortunate fishermen in the film “The Perfect Storm”: the boat, trying to climb onto the crest, became vertical - and fell off down, falling into the abyss with the keel up.

Rogue waves usually occur during a storm. This is the same “ninth wave” that sailors are so afraid of - but, fortunately, not everyone happens to encounter it. If the height of ordinary storm crests is on average 4-6 meters (10-15 for a hurricane), then a wave that suddenly appears among them can reach a height of 25-30 meters.

However, rarer, and much more dangerous rogue waves appear in fairly calm weather - and this is not called anything other than an anomaly. At first they tried to justify them by the collision of sea currents: most often such waves appear at the Cape of Good Hope (the southern tip of Africa), where warm and cold currents connect. It is there that sometimes the so-called “three sisters” - three giant waves following one after another, upon rising which supertankers break under their own weight.

But reports of deadly waves also came from other parts of the planet. They were also seen in the Black Sea - “only” ten meters high, but this was enough to capsize several small trawlers. In 2006, such a wave hit the British ferry Pont-Aven, which was traveling along the Pas-de-Calais Strait. She broke windows at the height of the sixth deck, injuring several passengers.

What causes the surface of the sea to suddenly rise up like a gigantic wave? Both serious scientists and amateur theorists develop a variety of hypotheses. The waves are recorded by satellites from space, their models are created in research basins, but they still cannot explain the reasons for all cases of rogue waves.

But the causes that cause the most terrible and destructive sea waves - tsunamis - have long been established and studied.

Seaside resorts are not always a paradise on the planet. Sometimes they become a real hell - when unexpectedly, in clear and sunny weather, gigantic shafts of water fall on them, washing away entire cities along the way.

...These images went around the whole world: unsuspecting tourists who, out of curiosity, went to the bottom of the suddenly receding sea to pick up a few shells and starfish. And suddenly they notice a rapidly approaching wave appearing on the horizon. The poor people are trying to escape, but a muddy, seething stream overtakes and captures them, and then rushes towards the whitewashed houses on the coast...

The disaster that erupted on December 26, 2004 in Southeast Asia shocked humanity. A giant wave swept away everything in its path, spreading across the Indian Ocean. Sumatra and Java, Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh, Thailand were affected, and the wave even reached the east coast of Africa. The Andaman Islands went under water for several hours - and the local aborigines miraculously survived, saving themselves on the treetops. As a result of the disaster, more than 230 thousand people died; it took more than a month to find and bury them all. Millions of people were left homeless and without a means of livelihood. The tragedy turned out to be one of the largest and most tragic natural disasters in human history.

“A high wave entering the harbor” is how the word “tsunami” is translated from Japanese. In 99% of cases, tsunamis are caused by an earthquake of the ocean floor when it suddenly drops or rises. Just a few meters, but over a huge area - and this is enough to cause a wave spreading out from the epicenter in a circle. In the open sea, its speed reaches 800 km/h, but it is almost impossible to notice it, since its height is only about one, maximum two meters - but with a length of up to several kilometers. The ship under which it passes will only rock slightly - that is why, having received a warning, ships strive to leave the ports and go as far out to sea as possible.

The situation changes when the wave approaches the shore, in shallow water (enters the harbor). Its speed and length drop sharply, but its height increases - up to seven, ten or more meters (cases of 40-meter tsunamis are known). It bursts onto the land like a solid wall and has enormous energy - that’s why tsunamis are so destructive and can travel several hundred and sometimes thousands of meters along the ground. Moreover, each tsunami hits twice. At first, when it hits the shore, flooding it. And then - when the water begins to return to the sea, carrying away those who survived the first blow.

In 1755, a tsunami caused by a devastating earthquake killed 40 thousand Portuguese. A formidable ocean wave hit Japan on June 15, 1896: the height of the wave reached 35 meters, then 27 thousand people died, and all coastal towns and villages in an 800 km strip ceased to exist. In 1992, a tsunami killed 2,000 Indonesian islanders.

Experienced residents of coastal cities and towns in seismically dangerous areas know: as soon as an earthquake begins, and after it a sudden and rapid ebb of tide, you need to drop everything and run without looking back to higher ground or inland. In a number of regions regularly affected by tsunamis (Japan, Sakhalin, Hawaii), special warning services have been created. They record an earthquake in the ocean and immediately give an alarm to all the media and through street loudspeakers.

But tsunamis can be caused not only by earthquakes. The explosion of the Krakatoa volcano in 1883 caused a wave that struck the islands of Java and Sumatra, washing away more than 5,000 fishing boats, about 300 villages and killing more than 36,000 people. And in Lituya Bay (Alaska), a tsunami caused a landslide that collapsed a mountainside into the sea. The wave spread over a limited area, but its height was enormous - over three hundred meters, while hitting the opposite shore, it licked the bushes at an altitude of 580 meters!

However, this is not the limit. The largest and most destructive waves are generated when large meteorites or asteroids fall into the ocean. True, fortunately, this happens extremely rarely - once every few million years. But this cataclysm is taking on the scale of a truly planetary flood. For example, German scientists have established that about 200 million years ago a large cosmic body crashed into the Earth. It raised a tsunami over one kilometer high, which burst onto the continental plains, destroying all life in its path.

Rogue waves should not be confused with tsunamis: tsunamis arise as a result of seismic phenomena and gain great height only close to the coast, while rogue waves can appear for no known reason, in almost any part of the sea, with low winds and relatively low waves. Tsunamis are dangerous for coastal structures and ships close to the shore, while a rogue wave can destroy any ship or offshore structure that comes its way.

Where do these monsters come from? Until recently, oceanographers believed that they were formed as a result of well-known linear processes. According to the prevailing theory, large waves are simply the product of interference, in which small waves combine into one large one.

In some cases, this is exactly what happens. A good example of this is the waters off Cape Agulhas, the southernmost point of the African continent. The Atlantic and Indian oceans meet there. Ships rounding the cape are regularly attacked by huge waves, which are formed as a result of the collision of the fast Agulyas Current and winds blowing from the south. The movement of the water slows down, and the waves begin to pile on top of each other, forming giant waves. In addition, super waves can often be found in the Gulf Stream, the Kuroshio Current south of the coast of Japan and in the notorious waters off Cape Horn, where the same thing happens - fast currents collide with opposing winds.

However, the interference mechanism does not apply to all giant waves. Firstly, it is in no way suitable for justifying the appearance of giant waves in places like the North Sea. There are no traces of fast currents there.

Secondly, even if interference occurs, giant waves should not occur so often. Their absolute majority should gravitate towards an average height - some are slightly higher, others are slightly lower. Double-sized giants should appear no more than once during a human life. However, in reality everything is completely different. Observations by oceanographers suggest that most waves are smaller than average, and true giants are much more common than we think. Orthodox oceanography gets a hole below the waterline.

A rogue wave is usually described as a rapidly approaching wall of water of enormous height. In front of it moves a depression several meters deep - a “hole in the sea.” Wave height is usually specified as the distance from the highest point of the crest to the lowest point of the trough. Based on their appearance, rogue waves are divided into three main types: “white wall”, “three sisters” (a group of three waves), and a single wave (“single tower”).

To appreciate what they can do, just look at the photo of the Willstar above. The surface on which such a wave hits can experience pressure of up to one hundred tons per square meter (about 980 kilopascals). A typical twelve-meter wave threatens only six tons per square meter. Most modern vessels can support up to 15 tons per square meter.

According to the observations of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), rogue waves can be dissipated and non-dispersed. Those who do not disperse can travel quite a long distance by sea: from six to ten miles. If the ship notices a wave from afar, you can take some action. Those that dissipate appear literally out of nowhere (apparently, such a wave attacked the “Taganrog Bay”), collapse and disappear.

According to some experts, rogue waves are dangerous even for helicopters flying low over the sea: first of all, rescue ones. Despite the seeming improbability of such an event, the authors of the hypothesis believe that it cannot be ruled out and that at least two cases of death of rescue helicopters are similar to the result of a giant wave.

Scientists are trying to figure out how energy in the ocean is redistributed in such a way that the formation of rogue waves becomes possible. The behavior of nonlinear systems like the sea surface is extremely difficult to describe. Some theories use the nonlinear Schrödinger equation to describe the generation of waves. Some are trying to apply existing descriptions of solitons - single waves of unusual nature. In the latest research on this topic, scientists were able to reproduce a very similar phenomenon in electromagnetic waves, but this has not yet led to practical results.

Some empirical data on the conditions under which rogue waves are more likely to occur are still known. So, if the wind drives waves against a strong current, this can lead to the appearance of high, steep waves. For example, the Cape Agulhas current (in which the Wilstar suffered) is notorious for this. Other high-risk areas include the Kuroshio Current, Gulf Stream, North Sea and surrounding areas.

Experts call the following prerequisites for the occurrence of a rogue wave:

1. area of ​​low pressure;
2. wind blowing in one direction for more than 12 hours in a row;
3. waves moving at the same speed as the area of ​​​​low pressure;
4. waves moving against a strong current;
5. fast waves catching up with slower waves and merging with them.

The absurd nature of rogue waves, however, is manifested in the fact that they can also arise when the listed conditions are not met. This unpredictability is the main mystery for scientists and danger for sailors.

They managed to escape

1943, North Atlantic. The cruise ship Queen Elizabeth falls into a deep trough and is subjected to two powerful wave shocks in a row, which cause serious damage to the bridge - twenty meters above the waterline.

1944 Indian Ocean. The British Navy cruiser Birmingham falls into a deep hole, after which a gigantic wave crashes onto its bow. According to the notes of the ship's commander, the deck, located at an altitude of eighteen meters from sea level, is flooded with knee-deep water.

1966, North Atlantic. On the way to New York, the Italian steamship Michelangelo is hit by a wave eighteen meters high. Water rushes onto the bridge and into the first class cabins, killing two passengers and one crew member.

1995, North Sea. The floating drilling rig Veslefrikk B, owned by Statoil, was seriously damaged by a giant wave. According to one of the crew members, a few minutes before the impact he saw a “wall of water.”

1995 North Atlantic. While sailing to New York, the cruise ship Queen Elizabeth 2 encounters a hurricane and is hit by a wave twenty-nine meters high on its bow. “It felt like we were crashing into the White Cliffs of Dover,” says Captain Ronald Warrick.

1998, North Atlantic. BP Amoco's floating production platform "Schihallion" is hit by a giant wave, which destroys its tank superstructure at a height of eighteen meters from the water level.

2000, North Atlantic. After receiving a distress call from a yacht 600 miles from the Irish port of Cork, the British cruise liner Oriana is hit by a twenty-one meter high wave.